Mr. Drake and his wife live a nice, quiet life on their Sussex farm, until one of their ducks lays a radioactive egg made of uranium. After the government finds out about this, the armed forces storm onto the farm in a frantic search for the duck responsible.
Tag: 1950s
In 1959, Peter Weiss made his first feature length film, Hägringen, with Staffan Lamm and Gunilla Palmstierna in leading roles. The script to the rather experimental film is based on the novel Document I which he had published in Swedish in 1949 on his own initiative. The film shows the encounter of a young man with a large city that is yet unknown to him. His passage, accompanied by often surrealistic and absurd impressions, turns into a tour-de-force through various urban milieus.
This was the first of a trilogy of films that director Rodríguez filmed to exalt the box office figure of Villa. Narrated in the form of independent episodes, it has seven segments of which the last one is the longest and narrates the love that a singer named Jesusita feels for the bold, but married, general. Between the episodes the loyalty of the man is shown, the sense of justice, his hypocritical heresy and the aspect of a womanizer and conqueror.
Tunis, 1943. Battle-weary troops of Company C have orders to occupy a derelict Tunisian farmhouse. They are to establish an artillery observation post, reporting on enemy movements before the imminent offensive to liberate Tunis. However German infantrymen discover their operations. The ensuing battle for control of this small piece of land will decide who controls Tunis but more critically, the victors in the battle of democracy versus fascism.
Dutch painter Jan-Van Rooyer hurries to keep a rendezvous with Jacqueline Cousteau, an elegant, sophisticated Frenchwoman, slightly his elder, whose relationship with him had turned from art student into one of love trysts. He arrives and is confronted by Detective Police Inspector Morgan who accuses him of having murdered Jacqueline.
In the small variety company of the Cavaliere Martoni, three chorus girls in search of fortune must decide their fate: Vera marries an industrialist, even if she doesn’t love him; Franca contracts a happy marriage; only Margherita becomes a star of the show.
Madeline is one of twelve little girls at a boarding school in Paris. They all act exactly alike except things are always happening to Madeline. When she gets appendicitis all of the girls visit her and are impressed by her scar. Later the other girls claim they too are sick and want an operation. The head of the school smiles because she knows all is well.
When it was released in 1950, The Sinner inspired vigorous protests and caused huge controversy for a film industry just getting back on its feet. Its tale of a young woman who survives as a prostitute after the war and later falls in love with a dying artist shocked conservatives and religious authorities. A popular actor and director of comedies since the 1920s, director Forst, in his first postwar movie, reveals a considerable feeling for melodrama. His narration proceeds without any sensationalism, and the theme of a great, ill-fated love is skillfully developed through the unfolding memories of the woman.